can you say, "addiction?"

this just in... the LA alternative press (a bi-monthly publication formerly known as the "silverlake press") publishes the NY times sunday crossword puzzle!!!! do i dare go down that dangerous road again? (background: i used to have an unhealthy addiction to crosswords. i try not to reminisce too fondly on those days...)

E.T., COME HOME! (and put us out of our misery)

why do people spend time pondering the obvious question, "why do they hate us?" "us," meaning the united states... i found my answer on t.v. tonight. on fox, yet another mindless "bachelor/ette" reality show; on, disney's abc, "ALL AMERICAN GIRL." the latter was mind blowing. i saw malnourished, awkward women dancing clumsily and looking outrageously embarrassing in front of a crowd of primped and prepped audience members holding studio-prepared signs reading, "kira! you go girl!" okay, not all of them were malnourished. some were mid-western well-fed girls. but, boy! what prime-time television cameras did to their rhythm! it was painful. who can really watch this crap and not think that someone in another country--whose economy and people are getting the shaft of globalization due to our bullying multinationals--would want to kill us for being so oblivious and ignorant to our privilege? when i think of these mindless moments of popular culture, i think of how other pieces of culture and history are in danger of being lost forever. when the US and british forces came to "liberate" iraq, they made sure to head straight to the preservation of its oil wells, while allowing looters to gut valuable artifacts of iraqi culture and history... for what? so that we can value overgrown cheerleaders on a studio stage and die knowing that, "hey! i owned a navigator!" it'll be pathetic when aliens come to take over the human race. all we'll have to show for our "history" will be a lot of plastic discards and coca-cola cans... maybe starbucks commuter mugs, too.

i'm building my tolerance for the "news"

like a first-time visitor to a nudist beach, i'm timidly dipping my toe (well, my ear) back into listening to npr. yes, pacifica is fortifying in that it assures me that i am not crazy and the world isn't all the way in the shit basket, but i felt i needed to brush up on what's "supposedly" happening in the world.

this morning, i wake up to the saccharine cheer of jay garner, the puppet before the puppet leader of the interim government of iraq. supposedly, it was his birthday and he was so "proud" to be celebrating it in the birthplace of civilization--iraq. he failed to mention how one of civilization's petulant children, the united states has just finished its attempt to bomb its mother back to the pleistocene era in a barbaric interpretation of "liberation." it's really liberating to know your water and soil will be poisoned indefinitely from the "allies" use of depleted uranium munitions. now, you do not have to worry over the answer to, "why don't i feel quite right?" you are "free" to skip that step and jump right into suffering. (i think i sense another american flag popping out of the window of an SUV--somewhere, out there).

i immediately wanted to switch back to pacifica to avoid these unsavory moments on npr, but i stayed on. i stayed on to listen to dumbya make an announcement on his nonsensical tax plan from the rose garden. i also stayed on to hear, "dammit syria! we know you bad, too! your next!" for now, i'll take comfort in envisioning the karmic actions that are due to come out of this senseless war...

news, in brief

i'm home sick. not homesick--i'm sick at home. also, i spoke with heinrich, a former eye8infiniti poster. he confirmed the fact that he DID erase all his previous posts on eye8infiniti. according to heinrich, "i didn't think i should invade the blog anymore." when asked if he believes the US will next invade syria, he replied, "hell if i know. they (the dubya administration) will make up whatever excuse if it brings them a couple of more oil wells." when asked if he ever takes the lord's name in vein, he replied, "not any more than those so-called patriotic foolios who start wars and then say, 'god bless america.'"